Memorandum of objection to Yarmouk camp’s regulatory map sent to the United Nations

Civilians and militias affiliated to the Syrian regime walking in the destroyed "30th Street" in the Yarmouk camp area - 24 May 2018 (AFP)

Civilians and militias affiliated to the Syrian regime walking in the destroyed "30th Street" in the Yarmouk camp area - 24 May 2018 (AFP)

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Voices continue to rise against the regulatory plan of the Yarmouk camp, the latest of which was by a group of Palestinian and Syrian civil society organizations that sent a memorandum of objection to the United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, explaining the plan’s gravity on the camp.

The memo, which was submitted by about 28 Palestinian and Syrian legal, civil and political entities, on 4 September, accused the Syrian regime of depriving the camp’s Palestinian people of returning to it, tearing apart its social fabric, and attacking its identity and character.

The memo pointed out that the implementation of the regulatory plan would cause its residents’ dispossession from their properties and their real-estate rights. The plan would also deprive the residents of returning to the camp, based on the camp’s destruction reality, and the demolition of significant parts of it to construct residential towers, markets, and gardens, as a substitute for the property rights of the camp residents.

The memo considered that the Syrian regime’s procedures in this matter “violate the human rights laws, the international charters and the Syrian Constitution that provides for the protection of property rights.”

The memo appealed to international bodies to pressure the Syrian regime to retract its decisions regarding the Yarmouk camp.

According to the memorandum, any plan for the camp before creating a safe environment for its residents’ return would be premature, hinder the track of political solution in Syria, and would be an infringement on property rights.

The bodies included in the memorandum of appeal included the UN, the Security Council, the European Union (EU), the Arab League, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as well as key countries in the Syrian file.

Recently, Damascus governorate decided to hold off the issuance of the Yarmouk camp’s final regulatory plan and formed a committee in this regard after thousands of objections were submitted by the camp residents.

According to a decision issued by the governorate last August, Damascus governor, Adel al-Olabi, ordered the formation of a committee, headed by himself and two governorate directors, and the head of the Yarmouk camp’s services department, Rula Mawed.

This committee aimed at studying the issue of the Yarmouk camp after issuing the suspension decision of its regulatory plan. It was also designed to discuss the future solutions of the area.

Last June, Damascus governorate announced its approval of the al-Qaboun area’s regulatory plan and the Yarmouk Camp’s regulatory map in Damascus.

Nevertheless, the Yarmouk Camp’s master plan was rejected by the Palestinians of Syria, amid calls from Palestinian human rights organizations for the Damascus governorate to retract the plan, as it is seen as a complete change for the camp’s features.

While, Palestinian lawyer, Nour Eddin Salman, who lives in Damascus, published on his “Facebook” page that the number of objections submitted by the camp’s residents on the plan has reached more than ten thousand objections.

النسخة العربية من المقال

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